Historic Hood River
Petition Your Government
10-13-2017
Notes
Residents submitted this petition to the Hood River city council circa 1910. There were several additional pages of signatures asking the city to close cigar stores, pool rooms, and other places of amusement on the Sabbath Day. I’m not sure if they were successful at swaying the council to pass the proposed ordinance.
Charlott
I do see a lot of familiar names on this.
But what hit me was the writing. In the time that this group of people were in school and growing up, penmanship was a big issue, as it still was when I was in the grade school. It was practiced over and over and over. Ofcourse, we know now, that cusive is on the way out, sadly.
I know when I was growing up the so called "places of amusement" were open on Sunday or at least some of them…,….
L.E.
This brought to mind an expression I used to hear all the time growing up. "Washington is a Blue Law State". It affected more than alcohol and cigars.
"On November 8, 1966, Washington state voters adopted Initiative 229, repealing the so-called "Blue Law," which had been enacted in 1909. This action legalized the operations of thousands of businesses in the state that had been opening on Sunday in violation of that law, and eliminated the legal bias favoring religions whose day of worship was Sunday. It also ultimately led to the sale of liquor on Sunday in the state.
In Washington in 1966, it was a crime to sell most kinds of goods and perform most types of services on Sundays. In addition, at midnight on Saturday nights restaurants and bars picked up their patrons’ alcoholic drinks and shooed the customers out the door. Two laws created this situation.
In 1909, the Washington Legislature passed the "Sabbath Breaking" law (Chapter 249, Section 242, Laws of 1909), which prohibited most businesses from operating on Sunday……."
http://www.historylink.org/File/9057
Arlen Sheldrake
grandma Della Sheirbon would have happily been a signer…strong supporter of the WCTU; Roger and I remember our Mother having difficulty even walking down the store beer aisle…….love the typo…..NOT the good old days…lots of bad memories of having to retype the whole damn document.
Buzz
Ah yes. Cursive writing and the Sabbath culture. Being raised a Seventh Day Adventist, I caught hell for playing catch one sunny Saturday afternoon.
Jeff Bryant
Can you post the other pages of signatures so we can see if relatives signed it?
LMH
The Hood River news., January 19, 1910, Image 1
On motion of Councilman Slocom the ordinance prohibiting minors
from frequenting pool rooms and providing for them to close on Sunday passed the first reading.
The Hood River Glacier., January 20, 1910, Image 1
Ordinance No. 224 regulating public pool, card and bar rooms, bowling alleys and soft drink establishments, was introduced and passed first reading. The ordinance makes the proprietor liable to a fine of from $25 to $100 if he allows minors under 18 years to loiter about his place, or if the place is open after midnight or on Sunday. The ordinance also makes youth who misrepresents his age to the proprietor liable to the same find.
The Hood River news., February 09, 1910, Image 1
City Council Puts Lid on Pool Rooms
Must Close On Sundays and Be Good On
Other Days–Soft Drink Establishments
Not Affected–Ordinance Passed 5 to 1
The feature of the session of the city council held Monday evening was the passing of the ordinance providing for the closing of the poolrooms, card room and bowling alleys Sunday and at midnight Saturday. The ordinance originally included soft drink establishments, but was amended before its final passage to allow them to allow them to remain open. Believing that the lid was being put on too tight Councilman Brosius moved to strike out the clause providing for Sunday closing, but on being put to a vote the amendment failed to carry. The ordinance carries with it the other provisions prohibiting minors from loitering in the pool and card rooms and fixes a penalty for its violation.
The Hood River Glacier carried a shorter article on Feb. 10, 1910.
Jerry Larsen
I would assume that the right-hand column includes women and under-age boys who are non-voters, with the voting men signing on the left. I agree with Jeff, that it would be great to see the other pages of the petition.
ArthurB
Sorry folks, I don’t think I scanned the rest of this petition. This is from a cache of city records I borrowed from the city last year. I just scanned the more interesting items to provide some entertainment and variety on this site. The city recorder keeps these records in city archives.
The city planning director showed me a newly discovered document this week which records the owner and tax assessment of every lot in the city for 1913 and 1914. I will probably scan this for the museum database because of the obvious research value. I’ll happily share it when I have a chance to process it.
Jeff Bryant
I would also like to see the list of people that were opposed to the return of the Japanese to the valley.
ArthurB
That’s an easy one, Jeff. They took out ads in the newspaper.listing their names. If you can’t find it online check at the museum on Monday when the research team is in. I know we have a copy or two in our archives, though I don’t know the non-photo archives very well.
Jeffrey Bryant
I couldn’t find the petition on-line. I live in Idaho, so getting to the museum doesn’t happen very often.
Kimberly Hoffpauir
I see my 3x great grandfather, William Boorman signed. What fun. I’m very interested in those tax records!